Finding His Muse: Acclaimed Photographer Discovers New Home at Rogersville Gallery (February 15, 2012)

ROGERSVILLE — Sam Bass said he was a young Navy journalist in the early 1960s with little ambition to pick up a camera, "there were, after all, young Navy photographers to do that," he said, but when he finally did, it changed his view of the world.

    More than 40 years later, Bass has established himself in photojournalism and strives to help others see their own surroundings through a different lens.  A few of those views are currently on display at the Local Artist Gallery in Rogersville, but Sam's story is far larger than the confines of an exhibition hall.

    "The best photographers strive to be masters of light, shadow, composition, and time," he said.  "We attempt to balance these elements to create the most powerful, thought-provoking images, remembering always we are but stewards of an instance in time.  But we're more than simply stewards, we interpret that instant."

    Those photographic interpretations are what Sam, who lives in Kingsport with his wife Cheryl, is recognized for throughout the Tri Cities region and the country.

    In 1972, Bass was selected Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers

Association, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the U.S. Defense Department, each based largely on his work as a Navy photojournalist in Vietnam.

   "This internationally prestigious award was presented annually at the University of Missouri following a worldwide competition of photojournalists and news photographers," he said. "I was privileged to share Photographer of the Year honors with a National Geographic photographer that year."

    Sam said he first became grounded in photojournalism when the Navy collaborated with Syracuse University to develop a unique, highly intensive photojournalism program specifically designed to build a team of creative, competitive, and highly-motivated professional photojournalists to tell the Navy and Marine Corps story.

    During that time, he received a scholarship to attend the Los Angeles Art Center School commercial photography program where he built a portfolio for his Syracuse application.

    "What a gift and eye opener that was," he said.

    While at Syracuse, Bass honed his creative photography and news writing skills as part of the school's photojournalism program, designed specifically for the Navy.

    "After Syracuse, I was assigned to South Vietnam and operated throughout Vietnam and Southeast Asia as a Navy combat photojournalist ... from 1967 to 1970," he said.

    During that period, Bass was also assigned to the United Nations Command in South Korea to document North Korean violations against the armistice."

    Those achievements led to his Photographer of the Year honors.

    Horst Fass, an AP photographer and Pulitzer Prize laureate said of his work, "Few combat photographers actually contribute to the advancement of photography. [Sam's] photographs are definitely a contribution and have deepened my understanding of the Navy and its operations in Vietnam."

    Bass' works, particularly his photos taken in Vietnam, have been widely published.  His clients have included Life Magazine, Time-Warner, Yamaha International, U.S. General Corporation, Keyocera International, Getty Oil Company, Eastern Airlines, Der Stern Magazine, and First Pacific International Bank, to name a few.

    Today, expanding beyond his photo works, Bass has designed and continues to conduct photojournalism-based creative communications workshops and seminars to share his style and technique with amateur photographers, as well as professionals.  He plans to offer some of those soon at the Local Artist Gallery in Rogersville.

    "There is no question, photography is an art," Bass said.  "And as with all art, there's good and bad art."  However, he said, "All photography begins as a technical challenge: camera, lens, film or digital, chemistry, light, shadow, color, grayscale, time.  In this regard, photography is not unlike fine art: camera, film, digital, and lenses equals paint, palette and brushes.  We all strive to become masters of these elements, and worthy stewards of the instants in time we capture."

    Bass said at every workshop he conducts, he begins by asking students the same question, "Technical elements aside, what goes into a photograph the instant the shutter is tripped in the camera?"

    "The answer, of course," he said, "is the photographer's whole life experience - his or her world view, opinions, values, fears, joys, politics, religion, education, and training; every aspect of our lives is applied to that single instant of time."

    He added, "As photographers, whatever or whomever we've become as human beings is translated into our images for better, or worse.  Believe me, there is no objectivity in this world.  There are only 6,795 billion very subjective points of view."

    As Sam Bass has drawn inspiration from the front lines, he said he continues to discover his vision through the reactions his work inspires in its viewers.

    "I try to ensure that my photo works represent a creative statement rather than provide a platform for a particular point of view or agenda," he said.  "I do want to confront my viewers and move them to look at life and their environment differently; to send them to a different place.  The best of us attempt to achieve a 'Wow!' factor in our photo works, not to overpower our viewer, but to excite them, to engage them and even to encourage them.  If in the process, we send a shiver up their spines, we've succeeded."

    For more information on The Sam Bass Collection at Rogersville Local Artist Gallery, call (423) 921-7656.  Framed prints of Bass' work, as well as photo cards are available there for purchase.  

    The gallery is located at 124 East Main Street in Downtown Historic Rogersville.